A List Of American Animated Features Currently In Development

There’s so much happening in feature animation nowadays, it can be hard to keep track of it all.

It’s tough even for us at Cartoon Brew, so we’re launching a simple resource below to help keep track of creatively developed and/or funded American animated features in development.

The list below tracks projects in development that have been announced or are publicly known. It’s incomplete at the moment, but we’ll fill in the blanks and keep it updated over time. It offers a pretty good snapshot of the future of U.S. feature animation, and lets readers observe broader industry trends, such as Hollywood’s heavy reliance on cg techniques and adaptations of properties from other media, especially children’s books and comics.

Amid Amidi is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Cartoon Brew. Read his full bio HERE.

Daniel Park

Wow Mark Osborne has a ton of stuff in development. Really looking forward to what he does with Bone.

Bart Crowe

I swear I thought Sony was working on an animated Spider-Man movie. Maybe I confused it with the upcoming Spider-Man PS4 game or they handed the reigns off to Disney.
Is Bone based off the Jeff Smith comic? Seems like a smart idea to adapt that into an animated movie.

Dave 52

No, Sony is still working on that animated Miles Morales Spider-Man Movie, it’s just that this list doesn’t have it on here. It has a release date for December 2018 along with it’s cast as well. This list is also missing a couple other films, particularity from Warner Bros such as The LEGO Movie Sequel, the Adventure Time Movie, and Space Jam 2. Sony also has two more original animated films they have announced from Michael Rianda and Jon Saunders.

AmidAmidi

Some of the films you mention, like Spider-Man and Lego Movie sequel are beyond development as far as I’m aware. But yes, added Rianda and Saunders to the list of development projects.

James Wiseman

Is it wrong that I want to see a Sonic the Hedgehog movie? Not sure about the live action/animation hybrid tho…

Blasko

Was really hoping to see Shane Acker’s name somewhere in here. He was attached to Beasts of Burden, but haven’t heard an update since 2013.

Anonymous

You left out Avatar 2 because that’s also a animated feature.

Andres Molina

Thats lot of films in development. First. Lets acknowledge the elephant to the room: The medium of these films! You know what I’m talking about.
LiveAction/CGI or Fully CGI: 29 Films.
Hand-Drawn: 0!!

Its staggering that, of all the films currently being announced, every single one of them is part, or completely CGI. I have nothing against CGI, in fact, I’m ADORE and LOVE CGI, but that doesn’t mean everything has to be CGI. At this point, and practically according to this list, the only 2 studios that even has the mere possibility of making a hand-drawn film is Pixar and Disney, and only because they haven’t announced what films are in development yet. And when they are announced, chances are, their films will be CGI. It’s saddening to see traditional animation be put aside and forgotten. So at this point, and yes, I’m probably crazy for saying this, but the first studio that needs to make a fully hand drawn film is PIXAR! Yes, Pixar, because even though this isn’t what they have done in the past, I believe that seeing a hand drawn film come out of the studio that focused its entire history with CGI, would not only send a beneficial shock wave to the entire animation industry, but it could convince all the other studios that if THE studio that practically kickstarted CGI is doing hand-drawn feature animation, then maybe the other studios would convince themselves to branch out and embrace other mediums, and maybe we’ll see more films using traditional animation.

Its not surprising to see Pixar and Disney without films announced in their development slate. Pixar is overall very secretive and reserved when it comes to films in their early stages, possibly to avoid leaks and even in a way, to surprise the audience with what they are releasing once these films are in production. So far they have 3 films currently in development with release dates but we don’t know what they are yet, so, at least for me, it makes it all the more exciting to await what they have once they announce them. So far, I’m betting my Money on Mark Osborne’s Bone, which has the most potential to being the best of them all. Overall, despite the over abundance of CGI, I’m really excited to see what these people come up with.

AmidAmidi

Actually, one of the films on the list is stop motion, but your point is taken.

More than 30 films pitched at the European forum Cartoon Movie last March incorporated hand-drawn elements, and many of those films will be produced. Hand-drawn is a valid creative choice that serves certain ideas well, and it continues to be successful in other parts of the world. In fact, the 8th-highest grossing animated release of last year was a hand-drawn film, “Your Name,” and it achieved that success with few box office dollars from American viewers.

The reason for the overwhelming dominance of cg by U.S. studios is because it’s a top-down business decision imposed on filmmakers by the people who control the money. Animation directors who choose to direct in the U.S. have to abide by that and choose ideas that will hopefully be best served by the cg process.

Elsi Pote

R.I.P. Sonic the Hedgehog, Sony will hammer the last nail on your coffin.

How ironic is Sony killing Sega a second time around. But, whatever!

Dave 52

With the director of Deadpool involved in your film there is a chance that your film can possibly be decent.

Strong Enough

the writers of deadpool made it what it was. the direction wasn’t anything special

Jack Franco

Yay! Almost all CGI (with some stop motion) and now hand drawn animation though wouldn’t space jam be hand drawn? They never said anything about it did they?

David

I think you’re safe from seeing any hand drawn animation on the big screen , Jack. I seriously doubt the Space Jam sequel will have any hand drawn animation (except maybe in the end credits sequence , they might hire someone like Uli Meyer or Ken Duncan to do some nice looking “tribute” animation to the classic Warner Bros. characters … )

Strong Enough

wonder what happened to Teddy Newton. he comedic talents need to be mined.

Luke

It’s also quite the tragedy that the Brizzi Brothers haven’t been able to get a feature off the ground. In a much better universe, they’d be given the Stanley Kubrick treatment and do whatever they want to do.

Tigercat919

Wait, are they actually planning a Space Jam sequel? I honestly thought those “Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James” rumors were just that.

Glowworm

That’s what I thought too. Cracked.com had to keep debunking that rumor.